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Author Topic:   Sun-Earth-Moon Gravity
cavediver
Member (Idle past 3673 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 29 of 119 (363358)
11-12-2006 8:11 AM
Reply to: Message 27 by 42
11-12-2006 7:01 AM


does every piece of matter continuously fall, towards the rest of the universe's centre of gravity?
The natural state of a piece of matter is to trace out a straight path through space-time, known as a geodesic. Because space-time is curved, these straight paths appear curved from our limited 3d viewpoint. Examples of the these straight paths are a stone dropped down a shaft which has been evacuated of air, the moon's orbit around the Earth, the Earth's orbit around the Sun, etc.
For most models of the Universe, there is no centre of gravity as there is no centre...

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cavediver
Member (Idle past 3673 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 35 of 119 (363532)
11-13-2006 4:42 AM
Reply to: Message 31 by Taz
11-12-2006 11:35 PM


Re: falling feathers
my personal opinion is that our current understanding of how the forces of nature work is still vastly incomplete
Really? Oh thank God. You may just have saved the tens of thousands of professional cosmologists/particle physicists/relativists from wasting their lives on a useless pursuit. Have you written to all of the relevant departments yet? They will be overjoyed to hear from you!
After all, the classical physicists thought they had it all figured out until something like the ultra-violet catastrophe came along.
You're so right. All my time as a professional scientist was spent unwittingly making this very same error, but now you put it this way it is so easy for me to see the complete folly behind my approach.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 31 by Taz, posted 11-12-2006 11:35 PM Taz has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 36 by Taz, posted 11-13-2006 12:09 PM cavediver has replied

  
cavediver
Member (Idle past 3673 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 37 of 119 (363785)
11-14-2006 2:29 PM
Reply to: Message 36 by Taz
11-13-2006 12:09 PM


Re: falling feathers
What's wrong with having some reservations?
Ok, first off
my personal opinion
has little to no relevance in science.
You then follow your "personal opinion" with
Therefore, any attempt at answering a question that deals with the universe as a whole should be taken with at least a hint of skepticism
That's a mighty big conclusion to draw from your own personal opinion. It may well be true, but it hardly follows...
There was no error behind the catastrophe
The error was in
the classical physicists thought they had it all figured out
Believe me, none of us think like that (although a couple did back around 1980 with N=8 SUGRA, but they shall remain nameless)
Again, the cautious me says that we're bound to run into problems later on that may need to move onto a new model.
Of course there are problems. And of course there will be modifications and new models. But to direct the level of tentativity you did at the most basic elements of GR is naive. If I had been explaining the ways in which string theory can remove the singluarities of GR, or even how cold dark matter factors into the large scale structure of the universe, you would have a point. But we are talking about the most accurately tested theory known to man, a theory that is over 90 years old. It will require a bit more than anyone's "personal opinion" to budge.
Anyway, have you had a couple of drinks?
Not at all. I'm just very defensive about my life's passion. Just remember, what I described is not some new-fangled hyper-theoretical super-jargon - it is exactly as it would have been explained in 1915... except they wouldn't have had the luxury of ninety years of solid evidence to back them up!

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 Message 36 by Taz, posted 11-13-2006 12:09 PM Taz has replied

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